Fourteen leaders and members of Turkish union TÜMTİS’ Ankara branch are facing imprisonment on politically-motivated charges dating back to 2007.

The 14 men are among 17 swept up in dawn raids in 2007 following a complaint by a logistics company where TÜMTİS had just completed a successful organisation drive.

Unbelievably, despite international protests and glaring inconsistencies and irregularities in their treatment and the cases against them, they were sentenced in 2012 to prison terms for the crimes of "founding an organisation for the purpose of committing crime, violating the right to peaceful work through coercion in order to obtain unfair pecuniary gain and obstructing enjoyment of union rights".

The convictions and process have breached international law. TÜMTİS and the International Transport Workers Federation appealed against the sentence, but despite all the evidence of abuse of process, the appeal court has upheld the sentences.

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